Antonio Conte fears Chelsea could be on the receiving end of a big defeat at Manchester City on Sunday if his side are not tactically ready to combat their hosts.

The Blues are 22 points behind Pep Guardiola’s champions-elect and are bidding to avoid a third-straight Premier League away loss for the first time in five years.

Antonio Conte says his Chelsea side risk losing in a

“When you play this type of game, when you play against this team who have showed to be very strong, you must have a plan in your mind to stop them with a tactical plan, otherwise you risk to lose in a bad way,” Conte said.

Conte earlier this season insisted Chelsea would focus on themselves and their own approach.

Targeting City would be a deviation from that, but balance is his main objective.

He added: “The most important things in every game are to have a tactical plan defensively and offensively.

“In my mind, if you want to win, you must have a great balance in every moment of the game.”

Antonio Conte has been looking for any weaknesses in Pep Guardiola's Manchester City

Conte on Friday described City as “unstoppable”, but the Italian has tried to find a chink in their armour this week.

“It’s very difficult but, at the same time, we have to try and find if there are weaknesses in this team and try to work on these weaknesses,” Conte added.

“For sure, it’s not simple, not simple in this moment to find a weakness in this team. But we have to try and find the best way to play this game against them.”

Conte reports that Ross Barkley has this week trained with the squad and has recovered from his recent injury. He is in the squad for Sunday.